With licensed schools in 15 different states, Associated Training Services (ATS) provides students with the necessary education to pursue a career in heavy equipment driving and operating. ATS offers the heavy equipment operator program, which teaches students to operate many types of heavy equipment such as backhoes, scrapers, wheel loaders, bulldozers, rock trucks, excavators, road graders, all-terrain forklifts and skid steers. Students enrolled in the program also learn fundamental skills needed to operate heavy equipment including safety, grade reading and heavy equipment maintenance. Interested individuals should contact their local campus for more details.
West Coast Training, located in Woodland, Washington, offers an eight-week, 320-hour course in heavy equipment training, which consists of 50 percent hands-on training and 50 percent classroom instruction. Students enrolled in the program learn how to operate trackhoes, backhoes, scrapers, graders, dozers and loaders in a construction environment; the program has them specialize in two pieces of equipment. During the classroom instruction, students learn safety, surveying, engineering and applied math and volume computations. During the hands-on instruction, students complete projects involving cutting and filling, grade checking and preventative maintenance.
Warren County Career Center, located in Lebanon, Ohio, offers a 600-hour heavy equipment operation and site construction program to prepare students for a heavy equipment operation career. Students enrolled in the program spend the first 520 hours learning about blueprints, safety, preventative maintenance, grade checking and GPS equipment, as well as how to operate 10 different pieces of heavy equipment. The final 80 hours of the training consist of an externship with an area contractor.
Great Lakes Truck Driving School, located in Columbia Station, Ohio, offers a four-week, 160-hour heavy equipment operation course designed to prepare students for entry-level heavy equipment operation jobs. The program breaks down into four sections; in each section, students learn to operate a certain piece of equipment. The first three sections are 40 hours long and teach safe backhoe, bulldozer and skid steer operation. The fourth and final section is 50 hours long and teaches front end loader/excavator operation.